Episode Transcript
Antifascist Dad Podcast, Episode 29
Matthew Remski
Matthew Remski: This is Matthew Remski with episode 29 of Antifascist Dad Podcast. There's no guest this week because I'm going to play an excerpt from the brand new audiobook version of Antifascist Dad, which is now out and available, and you'll see the link to buy it in the show notes.
You'll also see in the show notes that you can find me on Bluesky and Instagram under my name and I'm at YouTube and on TikTok as antifascistdad. You'll also see that the Patreon for this show is antifascistdadpodcast, where subscribers get early access to every second part of the weekly episodes, including this one. And this week the coda isn't directly related to the book, but sort of is. I'll get into that in the episode itself. It's an analysis of a viral episode of Natalie Wynn from, also known as Contrapoints, appearing on the Doomscroll podcast for three and a half hours discussing 15 complicated knowledge domains but without domain expertise. And I hold it up as an example of communicative capitalism in which we're not really engaging with analysis but with the skills of intellectual performance.
And it's why I think the commentary about the politics of an episode like this, including, you know, is Natalie Wynn left enough? Is she really committed as a leftist, or I think that's a dead end, because viewers are caught in this eternal netherworld between the ideas and the affects of influencer personas, with different viewers focusing on one or the other and sometimes switching.
So that's on Patreon. It's up now.
Now this audiobook excerpt produced by Dave Burr at Talking Book. He did a great job with the whole audiobook. I love how it sounds.
This is going to be chapter four, which is called Capitalism Everywhere and in Everyone, in which I argue that understanding capitalism's inherent cruelty is foundational to identifying fascism.
And to do this I lean on David Graeber's idea of everyday communism, which is the instinct for neighborly mutual aid and how it contrasts with the exploitative world of debt and profit.
At the heart of this chapter is my attempt at making accessible to young readers the non-mystery of surplus labor value, explaining how bosses legally appropriate profit from workers, creating systemic inequality and resentment and metabolic rifts.
This economic logic leads to crises that strongmen eventually manipulate.
And finally, the chapter addresses capitalist realism and urges families to reclaim their imagination, to build worlds centered on care instead of theft. As hard as it is to imagine now.
Before I roll this excerpt, I want to read the dedication in the book.
This book is dedicated to my partner Alex. I hope it can honor your insight, love and labor. To our two sons who teach me about time, courage and the trouble and joy of creating new worlds with whatever is at hand, and to all antifascist families and circles of care.
To my father David, a veteran and historian who gave me a yearning for justice and helped me learn how to think, to the memory of my grandfather Robert, who survived his war against the Nazis, and my late mother Jill, who survived what that war did to him.
I also really have to thank Tim McKee and Bevin Donahue and everyone at North Atlantic Books who really encouraged me in this flurry rush of an effort, and Jasmine Rest Press for editing. Of course I had a lot of readers and reviewers and tough critics. Blair Hodges was a huge help. Lisa Buzyczycki was very clear in her feedback and my mother-in-law Kathleen and father-in-law John provided excellent comments as well.
There were also many folks who read and endorsed the book and gave me this deep sense of courage.
Naomi Klein, Mark Bray, Michelle Johnson and a bunch of others.
Also, I need to thank my colleagues Derek Barris and Julian Walker over at Conspirituality and our listeners there because together, you know, they all helped provide the supportive and critical and dialectical space in which this work could develop.
[Audiobook excerpt omitted.]
Matthew Remski: Well, that was a little bit of a cliffhanger. Spoiler alert. Yes, we can avoid turning on each other, but that's in the rest of the book. Thank you for listening everyone. You can pick up your copy wherever books or ebooks or audiobooks are sold. Review it if you can, and if you're so moved, and thank you always for your support. And remember that Patreon episode is up now. All about the Doomscroll episode with Natalie Wynn. Take care of each other until next time.
